Robby Gordon bring stadium trucks back to San Diego

Robby Gordon is reviving Mickey Thompson’s stadium truck racing series next year with two events tentatively planned for Qualcomm Stadium in the spring.

The new series will be called Robby Gordon's Stadium Super Trucks Series.

But it will be modeled after Thompson’s popular series of the mid-80s.

“Next year will be the 25th anniversary of Mickey and Trudy Thompson,” said Gordon. “I’ve wanted to relaunch his idea for quite some time. But 2013 seemed to be the perfect time.

"Stadium racing helped Jimmie Johnson, Casey Mears and myself launch

our careers," said Gordon.

Johnson, for example, was a two-time champion in Thompson’s Off-Road Grand Prix Series while still in high school.

The list of drivers who won Thompson series championships included off-road racing legend Ivan Stewart.

“When you look back, it was a sensational series,” said Gordon. “Mickey did a great job of designing short-course tracks inside stadiums that created great side-by-side racing in addition to giving drivers lane options for passing.

“I want to capture that again.”

Gordon said his inaugural season will have at least 10 races with two in Los Angeles and two in San Diego. The exact dates have not been announced. Gordon said he expects to have the schedule completed by July 15.

Gordon’s “super trucks” will be modeled after factory trucks and be powered by 600-horsepower V-8 engines. There will also be racing in buggies and ATVs.

Local drivers hot

Two of the hottest drivers in racing right now are San Diegans.

El Cajon native Johnson has won two of NASCAR’s last three Sprint Cup points races plus the annual All-Star race at Charlotte.

And Carlsbad’s Ron Capps has advanced to five straight Funny Car championship races in the National Hot Rod Association with two wins.

“It’s been quite a run,” said Capps, who has a 15-5 record in head-to-head matches since legendary crew chief Rahn Tobler took over the preparation of his car.

In addition, Capps last week posted the quickest run in Funny Car history – 3.964 seconds at 320.89 mph before losing to teammate Johnny Gray in the finals at Englishtown, N.J.

“It’s such a fun race car to drive right now,” said Capps. “It’s fun just showing up at the track.”

Capps now has 34 NHRA event wins and has climbed to second in this season’s standings. He scored his second win of the season three weeks ago at Atlanta and is second in the Funny Car points race.

During his run, Capps is 3-0 against points leader Robert Hight.

Johnson, meantime, scored the 200th career for car owner Rick Hendrick at Darlington and impressively ran away from the field on the Monster Mile at Dover, Del., last weekend.

Local Laps

Dan McMillin: Cousin Andy gets more publicity and has had more notable successes, but Dan is emerging as another champion in the country’s top off-road racing family. Placing a buggy fourth overall in the Tecate SCORE Baja 500 in the middle of all the TrophyTrucks was quite an achievement.

Taylor Miinch: 17-year-old Alpine driver second his second straight ASA Truck Series victory at the Bullring in Las Vegas. Miinch was also the leading qualifier.